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The Thermaltake Theron mouse review(compared to G500 and RAT7)

STCNE

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Today I will be reviewing the Thermaltake Theron. I will be comparing it with the Logitech G500 and the Cyborg RAT. It’s been a good six months since I had the RAT so I will only compare it where I feel I can accurately describe it. I’ll be judging these mice on their first and lasting impressions, comfort, software, and gaming performance. At the end I’ll leave my notes. I’ll warn you now, I’m picky, but when you’re looking at $70 mice you should be.

I’m going to leave the specs and pictures to fellow reviewer Forcefedflesh as he’s gone above and beyond what is necessary. That, and no one wants to see my poor camera skills in action.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172650


First Impressions:
G500: A lot different than other gaming mice. Different shape, no rubber coating, no flashy LEDs. The scroll wheel feels a bit cheap but It’s not too bad. The plastic shell, eh, I’ll give it some time. The side buttons are nice. I keep having to pick it up to wipe off the feet, I hope this isn’t going to be the RAT all over again. Not really too comfortable, I’m sure I’ll adjust to it with time.

Theron: A more traditional gaming mouse(is that a thing?), has LEDs, rubber coating, and a shape much like an un-customized RAT. Fortunately without the discomfort added by having removable pieces. Good support for my hand, nice to not have to adjust to a mouse for once. Hmm, these buttons really are quiet, thought that was just marketing. Good glide, neither the feet nor sensor are catching anything, this mouse really feels solid, going to be using this one more often than not I think.
Lasting Impressions:
G500:
The mouse isn’t gliding like it used to, what gives? Oh, the feet look pretty badly scratched. I really hope this isn’t going to become a constant thing. I have to limit my gaming because the mouse starts to hurt my hand after awhile. I really wish I had gotten something with a rubber coating, this plastic feels cheap and the top has no grip.

Theron:
I’ve had this mouse a week now, probably a bit too soon for lasting impressions but here we go anyway. :p Nothing has really changed since my first impressions. And that means a lot. Between one mouse I had with the coating coming off and the Logitech losing it’s glide so quickly it’s nice having some consistency for once. I did turn off all the LEDs though, the novelty wears off fast, but I’m not into gamer styled cases either so there you go. Actually brings up a point I want to mention. The DPI lights are flush and have a plastic light filter over them. This is a nice feature that I haven’t seen on any other mouse. It’s nice not having bright LEDs lighting up the whole room late at night especially for those in a dorm room or who keep their computer in their bedroom. It’s the little things like this that make mice in this price range worth their price. No matter how good a mouse may be, if it looks cheap and feels cheap I’m going to have buyer’s remorse.
Comfort:
All the mice here are designed to be ergonomic and designed for right handed use. Both mice have thumb rests. They both have three equally easy to push side buttons. The Logitech has three on the left, while the Thermaltake has a full size one on the right. The RAT has two regular side buttons and the ‘precision aim button’ or sniper button as I call it. In the rank of build quality and feel of the side buttons and thumb area I’d rate the mice:
RAT7 9/10
Theron 8/10
G500 6/10
The Logitech is palm grip, and palm grip only while the Theron is claw but could be used any style comfortably. The RAT can be configured for either claw or palm grips depending on how you customize it. Shape wise the Logitech is tall and narrow with the front of the mouse sloped down, while the Theron is shorter and more shaped around the palm of your hand rather than your full hand. There is a gentler slope to the front of the mouse. The RAT in it’s default and smallest shape is like a bulkier Theron. The RAT’s palm resting area is let down by it’s removable grip IMO. It leads to the edge of the removable rest sticking up into your knuckles and it’s hard to get it comfortable as the edge is there no matter the adjustment. The Logitech was just too bulky for me to be able to get comfortable with it despite me having rather average sized hands. Overall I liked the Theron best. It fit the palm of my hand well as the resting area is well rounded off and I wasn’t forced to lay my fingers flat on the mouse(palm grip) like with the G500. I’m going to leave the ratings off for this section as it’s something that will be different for everyone.

Software:
-Ease of use and appearance:
G500 7/10 It really comes down to the fact that the Logitech software feels outdated and takes up much more room than it needs to. It takes up most of the screen, has five different pages, and two individual programs, but yet still has less settings than the Theron. The software has everything you’d expect, but nothing more.
Theron 9/10 The Theron software in comparison is an 800x600 box that looks really up to date, has 3 pages, and has useful settings like polling rate, scroll speed, etc. all right there in the control panel. You can assign and switch on the fly between 5 different profiles. What would really impress me is if you could assign different poling rate settings to each profile or DPI. I find the mouse most accurate put on 500ms for DPI under 2500, and 1000ms for DPIs over 2500. Not so much a complaint as a request as there is a button to change it on the bottom but who wants to do that mid-game? If it wasn’t for a few little nitpicky thing like that I would have given it a 10/10.
Macros:
I really don’t use macros. I usually assign simple stuff like reload to one button, and the inventory button to the other. So I’ll rate the mice based on how long it took and how easy it was to do just that.
RAT7 10/10 Very, very good system for this. You can download game profiles and switch between them with ease. I don’t remember the specifics of the system but I remember being quite impressed.
Theron 8/10 Easy to use, but a few features are not obvious(T key? I’m sure it’s in the manual) and in order to just bind a simple key sure as ‘r’ for reload you have to create a macro. You can’t just bind the button.

G500 6/10 Logitech has a system similar to the Theron where you can’t set keys directly. The problem is in order to make the macros you need to open a separate program and go through a whole process of recording keystrokes and what not. It’s very similar to the Theron’s but just looking at it, the program looks ugly and difficult to use. Appearance matters.


Gaming Tests: G500 vs. Theron
-Mount & Blade, Sept. 18
Ranged :
When I get new mice I try and get a feel for them with this game. Mount/Blade has a lot of different training events that have you shooting arrows and crossbow bolts at targets of different ranges. I find it’s a good test for comparing mice as the targets don’t move. This gives you a chance to line up your shots and eliminates variables that could mess with the test results.
Overall I found the Logitech G500 less accurate and I found it took longer to line up good shots as the cursor movement can be a little jumpy at times. Going up to the third DPI setting(which I had set around 3700) made it too fast. I wouldn’t recommend using the G500 with high DPI settings. It could be acceleration, the sensor, or just my discomfort with the mouse; either way I couldn’t hit anything with the DPI cranked up.

With the Theron I found I didn’t overshoot nor undershoot the target as often so it was quicker to line up the shots and fire. Even with the DPI near max I still felt I had enough control to pull off shots on the targets.

Melee:
For this test I jumped between a few different settings in the ‘custom battle’ option. I start with 1v1 and limit myself to just blocking attacks for a minute. As there are 4 different ways to attack(and block) reaction time and accuracy are critical to not getting hit.
Then I proceed to just do a few normal fights 1v6 style. Through those tests I switched between throwing knives and swords.

These two mice actually scored pretty much the same. Again I felt like I was more in control with the Theron but both fights were easy. With both mice I got hit 0 times in the first test over 3 runs, and with the one test each I did for the second one I made 3 easy kills with the throwing knives and then finished off with the sword without taking a single hit.
Also worth note that I had some problems with the Theron during these tests as well. Both the DPI buttons and the ‘polling rate’ button on the bottom switched out my weapons when pressed, and one of the times I switched DPI my game minimized. This is something that I’d say needs an urgent fix.
The G500 doesn’t have any popups and the DPI buttons do nothing but switch the DPI.

It’s probably not the best way to test a mouse, but I came up with it out of frustration when I was using the RAT 7. Mount/Blade was near unplayable so I came up with this test as a way to try different grip styles in hope of finding something I could game with.
With the RAT I’d get killed within 30 seconds on the first test, score no hits with the throwing knives, and then die to the army of 6 within seconds.

-Torchlight 2, Sept.22:

Most games I play I stick to ranged or magic classes, when I play melee I feel that I get overwhelmed and I lose control of the situation. Like usual I picked a mage in TL2, but something was different. I ended up using the mage staff which in this game is pretty much a melee weapon and I didn’t suck. What had changed I wondered, was it the fact that it was a new game? Then it hit me, it could be the new mouse. So I plugged in my G500. Not doing any silly tests or anything I just started playing. Immediately I noticed I was having issues getting my guy facing the right direction to attack. I cranked up the DPI, but that still didn’t really help. It was then I noticed just how badly the feet of the G500 are. They had worn and got scratched so badly in the past few months that the mouse wasn’t gliding over my mousepad smoothly anymore. Within a few minutes of playing my friend noticed that I wasn’t doing as well in combat and asked If I wanted to take a break. At that point I just unplugged the G500 and got it off my desk. I went back to the Theron and got back into the fight.

That pretty much summarizes the way things have gone every time I’ve swapped the mice out when gaming. I’m reluctant to plug the Logitech back in, and when I do I immediately feel like I’m fighting with it for control.
Conclusion:
Razer Abyssus
It’s been awhile since I had this one. It was 100% problem free and decently comfortable for fingertip grip use. Sold it because it lacked side buttons, but have been regretting it since. Accuracy wise it beats the RAT and G500 despite lower DPI. No adjustments at all. Would recommend if you can live without the side buttons. It didn’t seem fair to go into detail about a mouse I haven’t had for two years time, but it also didn’t feel fair leaving it out.
Good Deal at $40

Cyborg RAT7:
Would not recommend, paid $80 for it, and got rid of it as quick as possible (traded for G500) The mouse had a few redeeming features for it(side buttons and macro software) but the one I had was pretty much un-usable and frustrating. I’ve seen many people with similar issues and many who love this mouse. Not worth the risk in my opinion.

Logitech G500:
I think I could recommend this one for people who like large and heavy mice. Only major flaw is the fragility of the mouse feet, they wear fast and affect the overall performance considerably. Was going for $40 last I checked. It’s an ok mouse, but very polarizing.

Thermaltake Theron:
MSRP is $70, and I’d say it’s a good deal. It’s the most solid and accurate mouse I’ve tried yet, and the lack of mouse acceleration makes it stand out among the crowd of laser mice where it’s a forced ‘feature’. I also find it’s the only mouse where I actually use the high DPI. With the Logitech it just becomes uncontrollable when put up over 3000 or so, as did the RAT. I used to think that high DPI was only usable with the larger resolution monitors but I’m using a 22’’ and I’m quickly adjusting to using the mouse at full speed for gaming and desktop use.
If you’re looking for a good claw or palm grip mouse give this one a look.


TLDR version:
If you can afford the Theron go for it, it’s a great mouse and only has one real problem with the software that hopefully will be addressed soon. If not the Theron, go for a Razer Abyssus. It’s the mouse I started with and I’d highly recommend it.


Notes:

Cyborg R.A.T.
+ A million different ways to set it
- Never could get it comfortable
- The palm area of the mouse felt fragile and had problems staying flat with any adjustments to length(back piece), threw off sensor when this happened
- Back of mouse is wobbly when adjusted to make the mouse longer
- Rubber around thumb area started coming off within 2 weeks
- Sensor problems at least every hour, had to pick it up and wipe off the sensor area/ dust?

Tried on three different mouse pads, hard, soft, and plain old paper. The problem existed no matter the surface.
+ Sniper button, low DPI as long as button is held in, a great feature let down by a mediocre sensor
+ Good quality feet
+ Interchangeable parts with case, you could spend hours trying out all the different ways to set it
? Metal body for the mouse was quite nice and gave a great first impression on the build quality, the rubber and plastic fell short however
- Advertising states the metal body was to make mouse lightweight, heaviest mouse of the 4
+ Software had good profile support, was very easy to set macros and adjust settings

- Acceleration could be removed by software on Saitek site that edited your registry; the lack of an un-installer for this feature made it a pain to remove for testing.
+ Claw or Palm grips


Logitech G500
- Comfort is poor, hand starts to hurt after 2+ hours use gaming or otherwise
- No rubber coating, slippery plastic on tops, textured, gritty(gets greasy quickly) on the side
- Side buttons feel cheap in comparison
- Palm Grip only
+ Scroll wheel changes between precision and speed, unfortunately feels cheap because of this feature
+ Easy to use DPI switch
+ 3 Levels of DPI adjustment
+ 3 side buttons on the left side(some say they have problems with how close together they are but they worked fine for me)
? Feet fell off, bought it used so may not be common issue. Previous owner said it only saw a month or two of use and was un-used for over a year

- Even on new mouse, feet damage easily, new mouse’s feet already badly scratched within a few months, loss of glide

- Software screwed up and needed to be re-installed when I plugged in another mouse to use while waiting for a replacement.
+ Logitech RMA service sends you a new mouse without question even when warranty is expired and you bought your mouse used/damaged
+ Weight storage case
- Couldn’t really find a comfortable balance weight wise


Thermaltake Theron
+ Very accurate sensor, first one I actually don’t feel like I’m fighting to get it to cooperate(since the Razer), that plus the DPI adjustments make this a great mouse for sniping.
+ 4 Levels of DPI adjustment
+ Easy to use and quick to install software/ however it crashes on me on system reboot
Would be nice if polling rate was saved for each profile
An option to disable the prompts on DPI adjustment and side button use would be nice, the novelty wears off fast
Color blending and intensity options on the LEDs, there are plenty of options as is(7 colors, can set 4 areas of mouse: scroll wheel, sides, back, and logo on palm rest) but more features is always good
+ No Acceleration!
+ Quiet buttons and glide
+ 3 side buttons, one on the right. Just as useful as the Logitech but without the problem of the buttons being too close together
+ Good scroll wheel, feels solid, perfect for switching weapons in FPS
+ Good weight, would be nice to have a case for weights not being used like the G500
? Advertised as ‘mainstream laser gaming mouse’ but the price and performance say high end to me
? DPI buttons are only bound for DPI adjustments but were changing my weapons in some FPS games
? Too new to say how reliable it will be. I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t hold up. Build quality is very good.
 

Mussels

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as someone who's done small reviews before, i can say this.


you need pics/screenshots, or people wont have the attention span to read the wall of text.
 
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as someone who's done small reviews before, i can say this.


you need pics/screenshots, or people wont have the attention span to read the wall of text.

Blasphemy! I made it through start > finish, but then again I am/was seated ;)

PS: I have ADD :rockout:
 
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